Latin America

By Richard W. Coughlin | November 18, 2025 ( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – Iraq and Venezuela share an obvious trait: they are oil-rich states whose resource nationalism puts them at odds with U.S. geopolitical ambitions. For George W. Bush, Iraqi oil was framed within the “peak oil” panic and U.S. dependence on foreign […]

Brazil

COP30: 5 Reasons the UN Climate Conference wasn’t the Promised “People’s Summit”

The Conversation

By Simon Chin-Yee, UCL; Mark Maslin, UCL, and Priti Parikh, UCL (The Conversation) – As the sun set on the Amazon, the promise of a “people’s Cop” faded with it. The latest UN climate summit – known as Cop30, hosted in the Brazilian city of Belém – came with the usual geopolitics and the added […]

Latin America

Escalating the Escalation: A Short History of the Long War on Drugs in Latin America from Richard Nixon to Donald Trump

Greg Grandin

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Today, Donald Trump presides over his own Murder Incorporated, less a government than a death squad. Many brushed off his proclamation early in his second term that the Gulf of Mexico would henceforth be called the Gulf of America as a foolish, yet harmless, show of dominance. Now, however, he’s created […]

Caribbean

Hurricane Melissa was 33% more Destructive in Jamaica because of People-Caused Climate Breakdown

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Hurricane Melissa is the most devastating storm to hit Jamaica in recorded history, CNN reports. It rapidly intensified over the past few days, with its winds reaching 185 miles per hour at the time of landfall. This intensification is a feature of hot water, and the Caribbean in that area […]

Climate Crisis

Wind and Solar Provide 40% of Brazil’s Electricity for first time

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – This month Brazil’s National Electric System Operator estimated that wind and solar are now producing nearly 40 percent of the country’s electricity. It was just in August of this year that the country’s wind and solar installations hit the milestone of generating over a third of the country’s electricity (some […]

Brazil

The 21st Century has a before and after Gaza: Brazilian Author Frei Betto,

Global Voices

The Dominican friar was a key actor in the ‘Zero Hunger’ program in Brazil Written by Fernanda Canofre

Brazil

Trump threatens UN Visa Ban for Brazil over Pro-Palestine Stance

Middle East Monitor

By Eman Abusidu ( Middle East Monitor ) – US President Donald Trump escalated tensions with Brazil on Friday (5), labeling the South American country’s current government as “radical left” and suggesting that Brazilian officials could be barred from attending the upcoming United Nations General Assembly in New York. The statement came during a White […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Change and the Border-Industrial Complex in the Trump Era

Tomdispatch

By Todd Miller ( Tomdispatch.com ) – Believe it or not, I had a transcendent experience at this year’s Border Security Expo, the annual event that brings Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) together with private industry. I hesitate to describe it that way, though, because I was on the […]

Colonialism

500 Years of Inflicted Horrors, from the New World to Israel

Greg Grandin

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Leon Golub once related a story to a mutual friend. A Chicago artist famous for large canvases depicting crimson torture rooms in Central America, Golub had been asked what it meant to him to be a “Jewish political artist.” The painter’s quick reply was that he wasn’t a “Jewish political artist,” he […]